Still...I am already missing Michelle like the Dickens. However accomplished the athletes of the future may turn out to be, I do not expect to see another that I will have such an emotional investment in.
Still...I am already missing Michelle like the Dickens. However accomplished the athletes of the future may turn out to be, I do not expect to see another that I will have such an emotional investment in.
Not surprising. One does have strong feelings for an all-time favorite.Originally Posted by Mathman
The only one close to John Curry, for me, was Kurt Browning. I don't want to hear about Quads. Those two were about freestyle figure skating.
Joe
Shout out for John Curry! The more I have found out about him, the more it seems he was very instrumental in keeping or increasing the "dance" involved in FS. Thank you JC
And with them both gone, who, oh, WHO, in his mind, is going to have THE spiral to compare others' to? When Bobek was still around, everyone who came out, "Oh, her spiral is not nearly as good as Bobek's". Then it "wasn't nearly as good as Michelle's", then when Michelle cut back her schedule, "it wasn't nearly as good as Sasha's". Kind of like with the pairs -- every non Chinese pair who does a twist or a throw, "Well, that's not NEARLY as high as the Chinese.".........
In the US, the standard for spirals will be Alissa Czisny for now, (I'd imagine we'd still hear references to Sasha/Michelle's in the meantime) although I'm not crazy with the angle of her free leg position on the abrasque spiral. She seems to be even more flexible than Sasha, so my guess is if she can work on some of her positions, and her hip angle for the abrasque more, she will be just as impressive. If you look back at Sasha when she first started in Sr's, she had all the flexibility in the world, but didn't hold some positions long enough, didn't have deep edges, good ice coverage or speed, so it was more "wow look at her flexibility!" than "wow, look at that spiral!" I already think Alissa's the best US ladies spinner, probably ever.
Then, in a couple of seasons, if all goes well, we'll have Caroline Zhang, who from the clips I've seen has one of the best spiral sequences compared to many elite seniors.
Unfortunately given Dick Buttons' age he may no longer be with us to shout out "Shades of Michelle Kwan" or "Shades of Sasha Cohen". If we look back at MK and SC careers they are leaving some pretty big skates to fill. So sad an end of an era but sometimes change is good. I will have to wait and see
maybe I will be suprised.
Hey! I'm the same age as Dick and there's still plenty of spunk left in us.
When you get our age, it ain't as old as you think.
It's a given that no skater or athlete can dominate forever. At some point there has to be a departure and then a changing of the guard. Sad for most of those in the situation but necessary. Besides, there's always the next "big thing" to look forward to. No tears or sadness on this end, but then again I wasn't a fan of either of them.
Oh Mathman, I totally agree 100%. If Michelle does not continue skating in some fashion or finds something else to be passionate about, I don't know if my Husband and I will have any breakfast table conversation of interest. This season has been so sad without her.
Ladybug
I don't think it is sad for an athlete to retire from competion.especially if the athlete has a chestful of awards and titles. The athlete understands the aging process and accepts it as we all have to do.
An avid fan of an athlete may feel sad about his favorite retiring.
Joe
With two of my favorite ladies "on the shelf" so to speak, I'm focusing on the men's event.........Johnny my current fav for the guys.............42
I think Kimmie and Katy will both medal at Worlds
I think the sad thing about Michelle's "retirement" (if in fact she is or will retire soon) -- and I think I speak for many -- is not necessarily the fact that she is moving on, or will, because we all expected that someday. It's the way she's gone out of the sport, so to speak. You look at that career, you look at those performances (most of them, anyway), and it's a shame that if she were to retire tomorrow, given her last couple of seasons, it would be like she just kind of faded away -- as opposed to going out in a more spectacular fashion (i.e, winning that 10th National, or the Worlds again, or the OGM) that would certainly be a more appropriate way to end such a spectacular "eligible" career.
That's the way it is in skateland. One goes out with a BANG or with a WHIMPER.
Last edited by Joesitz; 08-07-2006 at 06:11 AM.
Michelle worked her butt off last season and as a result she was not able to compete at all. If she had planned retirement last year, I would be fine with that but I think the way things went, it was sad for Michelle as well as all her fans.
Such a stellar career and she wasn't able to give us and herself one last skate of a lifetime which she worked darn hard to do.
Ladybug
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks